Ah yes, design myths. What a fun topic to tackle! These are misconceptions I hear often from friends, clients and business owners. Sometimes they are objections, or they are describing past poor experiences.
Other times it’s just simply not knowing, and that’s okay! I don’t know everything about every industry either. As always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out.
Having these myths debunked will help you stand out from your competitors and connect better with your target audience.
Graphic design is about being trendy
Graphic design is more about creating trends than being trendy. It’s actually best to avoid trends and trendiness altogether when it comes to your business branding.
Trends are inherently short-lived. The Pet Rock, bell bottoms, frosted tips and more all have very specific eras associated with them. You don’t want this for your branding! It makes you look old, dated, and out of touch.
Ideally, you want your brand to be timeless, which will help with recognition and trust in the community by not continually changing to meet the trend. When you are creating something that isn’t trendy, it often feels risky or out-of-the-box, this is how trends are created!
Don’t worry if your logo doesn’t look like everyone else’s. Be the forerunner, differentiate, and know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Trendiness in graphic design has its place though! If you want to experiment with what’s trending, use that trend in a short campaign. Use it in something that won’t over-power your identity but help you stay relevant.
Be careful not to be jumping on any bandwagons. If you’re not an early adopter it can be too late to look authentic. Always ask yourself what will help your business the most in the long term.
If you’re ever unsure whether you should be following trends, check out what your ideal customers are doing and what they’re interested in. Let them guide your print design, marketing materials and branding decisions.
Graphic designers just make things look pretty
A graphic designer’s number one job is to make things work, often that is part-and-parcel with looking good, but not always (and pretty is subjective to everyone, anyway).
When I say we make things that work, I mean it is our job that the billboard we create gets you leads, the menu we design gets customers to order the dish with the biggest margin, it means people pick your brand of coffee over the ones sitting next to it on the shelf.
Sometimes being ugly or jarring or uncomfortable is the way to do it, too. United Colors of Benetton had an infamous and controversial campaign from the early 1990s featuring all sorts of taboo topics including AIDs and racism. It’s a divisive campaign that left many people wondering what a sweater company was doing with their advertising — but it sure got people talking about Benetton!
Another example of ugly advertising is all the drunk driving PSAs that we watched growing up. The entire point was to scare us into behaving better. Some brands benefit from scare tactics or being contrarian.
Graphic designers have total control over your design
This may be true in some cases, but I don’t believe this is best practice and something you should ask about when you are interviewing designers. We believe that your fingerprints should be on your design.
We hope you are coming to us for our expertise and processes that have been honed over time, but at the end of the day, the design and brand are yours. We do our best to give you the tools you need to run with it and live your brand day-to-day.
While we will always provide you with the best solution based on our research, we definitely don’t believe in bullying our clients into that design.
We are also happy to create templates for our clients so they can create a professional piece on their own. This is especially beneficial if you have a print design that changes often. We see this a lot for our Real Estate clients when advertising a house. The foundation of the print design stays the same, but the house photos and address change. This is a great option for your social media, too!
You don’t need to invest in graphic design; you can DIY it
Please see the previous design myth! We know that getting a logo for free or using an online logo maker can be temping. We also want to give you the tools to feel confident in your branding, but it is still something you need to invest in.
Getting your brand identity done correctly the first time will save you money and make you money! I’ve redone so many brands and company logo designs from customers who were dissatisfied with their Fiverr or Kijiji experience.
It’s important to start on the right foot and understand who your customer is and how your brand works as a bridge between you, your business and your customer. I understand that budgets aren’t limitless, and if you’re a small business having the option to create items in-house is valuable. When you are creating a key piece, that can be a great time to talk to a designer and make sure it represents your business in the best way possible.
Creating pieces in-house can be much easier when you have brand guidelines developed by a professional designer and have a direction for your printed materials. Don’t get stuck with a basic business card! Remember, graphic design is supposed to work!
Feeling mystified by your graphic design?
What are some other ideas you have about graphic design and designers? Any myths you’ve heard that you would like busted? We’re here to answer your questions any time! Book a branding consultation call and we’ll get those myths, busted.